Archery is a popular sport and hobby which has gained increasing popularity for use in hunting and rapid shooting contests. Constant factors in archery are the interfering bulk of the bow, maintaining a critical shooting balance and the convenience of means available to the archer to assure a ready supply of arrows as the need arises. With the popularity of sporting contests and hunts involving movement of the archer from position to position, the convenience of a quiver which enables minimum motion reloading has become particularly desirable.
Particularly in the sport of bow hunting, it is generally necessary to get as close as possible to the quarry in order to assure that the arrow finds its mark. In the hunting environment, it is not unusual for a bow hunter to be required to stand in a still position to avoid detection by the quarry, and in many instances, movement that may be necessary to load or reload a bow is detected by the quarry and the opportunity to shoot is lost. Loading or nocking an arrow, or reloading an arrow after a missed shot, typically requires movement by the hunter which can easily be detected by the quarry. Thus, it is desirable to have a convenient means and location for storing arrows which allows the archer to load and reload with minimum detectable arm and hand movement.
Modern bows are sophisticated devices which are carefully engineered and balanced to provide an accurate platform for the repeatable accurate release of arrows. Generally, the hand grip and arrow rest are positioned as close to the centerline of the arc of the bow as possible so that the hand of the archer supporting the bow can effortlessly maintain the bow generally perpendicular when an arrow is nocked and the bow drawn to a shooting tension. Special sights and stringing means have been developed to assure the accuracy of the flight of an arrow, each of which are generally keyed to the centerline of the arc of the drawn bow and the ability of the archer to maintain the arrow along the centerline of the arc in an arrow launch plane during release to a target.
The prior art is replete with various quiver means for storing arrows on a bow and various devices for reloading arrows. Typically quiver means store the arrows in an arrangement generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the bow which add bulk to the profile of the bow and require significant movement of the archer's arm and hand in order to remove the arrow from the quiver and reload the bow. Typically, the center of gravity of such quiver means loaded with reserve arrows is to the side of the longitudinal axis of the bow which creates additional forces at the extended hand of the archer which supports the bow in the shooting position. Thus, the hand of the archer which supports the bow is not only supporting the weight of the bow and nocked arrow in a raised position, but the additional weight of a loaded quiver mounted generally parallel to the longitudinal centerline of the bow creates torque force moments at the hand which must be counteracted to maintain the bow in a perpendicular position. This torque must be compensated for by an archer in his shooting habits and as the plurality of reserve arrows is spent, the change in weight changes the torque which must be compensated for. Further complicating the process, such parallel mounted quivers are generally arranged significantly spaced from the bow to assure clearance of the arrow during the shooting act, increasing the moment of torque at the hand and increasing the bulk of the profile of the bow, which is problematic in dense foliage and obviates the presence of the hunter to his quarry.
Arrow reloading means of the prior art typically maintain several arrows in a complex mechanical apparatus that requires multiple moving parts to function. Many of such means make mechanical sounds when they are functioning, that are distinct from the environmental background sounds and are easily detected by the quarry. Such complex means are subject to malfunction because of the dirt and rough handling imposed upon the equipment in field use.
It is an object of this application to provide a detachable means for convenient storage of arrows on a bow in a position amenable to rapid reloading.
Another object of the application is to provide a means that allows reloading a bow with minimum hunter movement.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a light-weight, non-complex device, that is adaptable for convenient attachment to any size archery bow, which will retain the center of gravity of the bow as close as possible to its longitudinal axis and allow minimum change in bulk to the profile of the bow.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.